Final Thursday Reading Series—Spring 2024

FTRS is back for a new season of regional authors & a creative writing open mic on the final Thursday of each month at the Hearst Center for the Arts. Click here to find out more and read interviews with featured readers.

Open mic at 7:00 p.m. Featured reading at 7:30 p.m. Can't attend in person? Featured readers can be live streamed on Zoom. Click to register. 

The Final Thursday Reading Series is a collaboration of Final Thursday Press; the Hearst Center for the Arts; the UNI College of Humanities, Arts and Science; and the UNI Department of Languages & Literatures.

25 January 2024
Catherine DeSoto

DeSoto is the author of Lies of Omission: Algorithms versus Democracy (Skyhorse), a study of the impact of algorithmic curation of social media on divisions within the United States. Dan Kovalik writes of Lies of Omission, “this book will make you question what is true and factual in the world, and whether you have a viable path for discerning such things.” DeSoto is a professor of Psychology at the University of Northern Iowa.

29 February 2024
Christopher D. Schmitz

Schmitz is the author of several science fiction and fantasy series including 50 Shades of Worf, Wolves of the Tesseract, and Curse of the Fey Duelist, which includes his most recent work, The Crow and the Troll (TreeShaker), a dark fantasy about “a contract killer, a gorgeous victim, and a mystic garden hidden beyond the Winter Court.” He is also the author of The Indie Writer’s Bible Workbook.

28 March 2024
J. D. Schraffenberger

Schraffenberger is the author of the recent poetry chapbook, American Sad (Main Street Rag), which Dan O’Brien describes as “deeply moving, unnerving, provocative, darkly comic, and thoroughly recognizable.” His other poetry collections include The Waxen Poor and Saint Joe’s Passion. Schraffenberger is an editor of the North American Review and a professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa.

25 April 2024
Micki Berthelot Morency

Morency is the author of the debut novel, The Island Sisters (BHC Press). Stacy Hawkins Adams says Morency’s writing “leaves you rooting for her characters as if they're your kin. Her vivid prose paints an unforgettable portrait of Haitian culture and customs, while imparting wisdom and gripping your heart.”